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Alaskan Klee Kai — BetterBred Breed Page – BetterBred.com
BetterBred Breed Profile

Alaskan Klee Kai

Temperament: Highly intelligent, trainable, active dog. Alert and occasionally vocal.
Height: Three sizes: standard, over 15 inches up to and including 17 inches; miniature, over 13 inches up to and including 15 inches; and toy, up to 13 inches.
Weight: 10-20 lbs
Life Span: 12 - 16 years
Outlier Index ?
0.22
Born before 2016: 0.21 Born after 2024: 0.21
Avg Genetic Rel. ?
0.00
Born before 2016: 0.01 Born after 2024: 0.05
Internal Relatedness ?
0.00
Born before 2016: 0.01 Born after 2024: -0.03
Alaskan Klee Kai
#NameGender OIAGRIR
1 Blue Sky's Danali @ Akkops M 0.24 -0.04 0.12
2 Foxx's Silver Teddy Bear v Akkops M 0.16 0.05 0.10
3 Foxx's Silver Misa v Akkops F 0.21 0.10 -0.15
4 Foxx's Wynning Ways At Aklokum F 0.26 0.00 -0.03
5 Timberlane's Deja Vu F 0.13 0.06 0.16
6 Ravn's Grand Depart Inca F 0.22 -0.03 0.05
7 PR FOXX's Wynn Your Heart F 0.20 -0.02 -0.13
8 Pockets Griffin M 0.22 -0.01 0.09
9 Pockets Mystic Moon Beam F 0.11 0.12 -0.08
10 PR Mikka Phoenix Rising in Pocket F 0.19 0.07 -0.18
The Alaskan Klee Kai was developed in the 1970s from a rescue named Curious who was believed to have been bred from a purebred Husky and a mixed breed dog. The Spurlin family developed the beginning of the AKK breed from this initial rescue. Other dogs used in the production of the breed included Siberian and Alaskan Huskies, a Schipperke and an American Eskimo Dogs. The Alaskan Klee Kai (AKK) was officially recognized by the American Rare Breed Association (ARBA) in 1995 and by the United Kennel Club (UKC) in 1997. AKK occur in three size ranges: 1) Toy - ?13 inches; 2) Miniature - >13 inches and ?15 inches, and Standard - >15 inches and ?17 inches.
Alaskan klee kai's are fairly closely clustered together genetically. When compared to modern day village dogs, AKK would be considered products of full-sibling matings, with substantial loss of breed-wide diversity. They have been found to have a severe bottleneck with low average alleles and effective alleles found within the tested population (Na of 4.788 alleles per locus and a mean Ne of 2.620 alleles per locus resepctively). AKK have been found to be doing a good job at present maintaining heterozygousity within the breed.

Average metrics by birth year for dogs with recorded birthdates in the BetterBred database.

A 3D genetic map of enrolled Alaskan Klee Kai dogs in the BetterBred database, based on allele-sharing distance across 33 STR loci. This is not a complete picture of the breed — it reflects only dogs whose owners have enrolled them. Drag to rotate · scroll to zoom · hover for dog names (public profiles only).

Historical founders — oldest 25% of enrolled dogs     Current gene pool — most recent 50% of enrolled dogs
Building plot… this may take a minute for larger breeds.

The Dog Leukocyte Antigen (DLA) region controls immune function and is the most polymorphic portion of the canine genome. Every dog carries two sets of DLA haplotypes — one from each parent — which almost never recombine across generations. Frequency percentages reflect how often each haplotype appears across all allele copies in the breed, not the percentage of dogs carrying it.

Class I Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
1014
34.8%
1040
22.3%
1062
22.0%
1008
6.1%
1011
5.4%
1061
5.2%
1064
2.0%
1063
1.1%
1060
0.8%
1072
0.3%

Class II Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
2037
34.8%
2021
22.7%
2043
22.3%
2014
7.2%
2012
5.8%
2042
5.2%
2007
2.0%

Class I & II Combinations

Class IClass IIFrequency
1014 2037
34.6%
1040 2043
22.2%
1062 2021
21.5%
1008 2014
6.1%
1011 2012
5.4%
1061 2042
5.1%
1064 2007
2.0%
1063 2014
1.1%
1060 2021
0.8%
1062 2012
0.4%
1072 2021
0.3%

The Canine Diversity Test from UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory is the foundation of BetterBred’s breed management tools. Testing your dog adds to the breed database and gives you access to the full suite of breeding analysis tools.

Order from UC Davis VGL →
OI
Outlier Index

The Outlier Index (OI) measures how unusual a dog’s allele combination is relative to the tested population of its breed. A higher OI means the dog carries alleles at lower frequencies across the breed — genetic variants that are underrepresented in the population as a whole.

Dogs with high OI are genetically valuable because they carry diversity that most other tested dogs don’t share. Breeding them thoughtfully into the broader population helps redistribute lower-frequency alleles rather than allowing them to become even rarer over generations.

The breed average shown here reflects all dogs tested in the BetterBred database. The senior and youngster comparisons show whether diversity is trending up or down in recent generations.
AGR
Average Genetic Relatedness

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR) measures how similar a dog’s DNA is, on average, to every other tested dog in the breed. It reflects the dog’s mean kinship — how closely related it is to the population as a whole.

A lower AGR means the dog is more genetically distinct from the majority of the breed. Dogs with low AGR carry alleles at lower frequencies across the tested population, making them higher-priority candidates for inclusion in a well-managed breeding program.

AGR is conceptually related to mean kinship used in conservation genetics for managed species populations. A declining AGR average in younger dogs suggests the breed is successfully redistributing genetic diversity across generations.
IR
Internal Relatedness

Internal Relatedness (IR) measures how much identical genetic material an individual dog inherited from both parents. IR is a useful indicator of inbreeding: lower IR generally reflects lower inbreeding, and it is widely used and reported in the scientific literature.

A high IR is not the cause for alarm it might appear. Elevated IR can often be resolved in a single generation by pairing with a dog whose ancestry is less represented in the breed. It is a signpost, not a sentence.

BetterBred reports IR for reference, but it is not our primary breeding guidance tool. OI and AGR together give a more complete and actionable picture of a dog’s genetic value to the population.

AGR tells you which dogs are genetically unusual relative to the population. OI tells you which dogs are most valuable to preserve. OI specifically weights mid-frequency alleles, identifying dogs whose ancestry is underrepresented in a way most likely to benefit the breed.